Isis Barrett-Lally

 

Sangría

 

L’orage du sang

does not exist,

blood-orange

is « sanguine ».

 

Sang means blood, so sanguine.

I once drank sang-

ría with pieces of orange

and apple floating in it – existentially.

 

I thought that it tasted real, of oranges

and looked like blood.

I knew I existed

because I had read « Sanguine ».

 

The man explained,

indiquant au poignet, it’s as in sang

and then « gris », a colour (like orange)

and « a » is the last syllable like « ine » in sanguine.

 

 

Demie-Poème

                         Half a Poem

 

La lune est toujours là

                                 I suppose you could say

elle ne brille pas

                                 her, she, instead of it

elle réfléchit la lumière.

                                 like we do with ships and

Faite de la cendre et de la poussière

                                 girls, women – never tables or chairs.

elle est devenue une sphère dure

                                 She is, I mean, has become a hard

après l’explosion quelque chose d’isolé et mûr.

                                 sphere…[something], something isolated and mature.

On la regarde avec des télescopés

                                 Err, we watch her – no it – with telescopes

on suit la grande misanthrope

                                 we follow it, that is, the great misanthrope

au cas qu’elle connait une éclipse.

                                 in case she knows [?] an eclipse.

 

*The moon is always there/ she does not shine/ she reflects the light. / Made

of ashes and dust/ she became a hard sphere/ after the explosion an isolated

and mature thing. / We watch her with telescopes/ we follow the great

misanthrope/ in case she goes into eclipse.

 

 

Looking down Mount Etna

 

He never suffers

from altitude sickness

three quarters of the way

up, on the rung of rock.

 

A sanctuary. Not once

has the refugee

descended

from his interim,

 

to the forest,

cliffs and then the sea

below. That is, since

he was displaced

all those years ago.

 

He’d haul himself

from his town, down

if it ever were too much.